Make sure you go to Just Add Ink to see the rest of the Design Team's creations with this gorgeous colour combination. We hope you play along with us - we'd love to see how you use these colours on a papercraft project!

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

There is a new challenge blog happening over at Addicted to Stamps, and I am scraping in at the eleventh hour with an entry for the very first challenge - to use markers on a papercraft project.

I've had another play with my new Frightful Sight Designer Series Paper - it constitutes most of my card's design. I have inked up the sentiment with my Stampin' Write Markers, in colours that match the patterns on the DSP.

Today I received a Stampin' Up! order, including a packet of Frightful Sight Designer Series Paper (thanks to my newest recruit, Joy, this paper was FREE - woohoo!).

Ethan, my youngest, has need for a birthday card for a boy turning 11 ... I thought a spidery/ghosty/batty card might be in order, but boy, was I wrong. Apparently the birthday boy LOVES food, and has parents who own a bakery. Ethan decided I should make a card with a cupcake on it!! Determined to still use my new paper, this is what I came up with:

Also in my delivery today was a new toy - the Diagonal Scoring Plate for my Simply Scored tool. This super-duper item will be available to buy in July, as a special advance-purchase from the new catalogue due out in a few months. We demonstrators are able to get it a little early (one of the many perks of being a demonstrator!). Check out the cool texture I added to the die-cut edge:

Monday, June 25, 2012

I love this week's monochromatic challenge over at Dynamic Duos - greens are a favourite of mine.

I've done a complete 360-degree turnaround, with River Rock. When Stampin' Up! first introduced it as an In Color a few years ago, I didn't like it at all. Once it made its way into our core colour range, and I played with it more, I grew to really love it. It really is beautiful, paired with Always Artichoke.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Today I'm taking part in a little blog hop, with five other friends who are also Stampin' Up! demonstrators. The theme of our blog hop is "baker's twine" ... hopefully once you've done the rounds of our blogs, you'll have lots of new ideas for using this great, versatile embellishment. Stampin' Up! offers bakers twine in white, as well as 7 colours (and I'm hoping for even more in our new catalogue in a few months' time!).

You may have come to me via Ros Davidson's blog .... but if not, don't worry - you won't miss any of the stops if you just follow the link at the end of each participant's blog post.

As well as featuring baker's twine on my cards, I'm showcasing Stampin' Up!'s Reason to Smile stamp set, that is an exclusive set available only until the end of June. It's FREE if you place a $125 order, or you can buy the set - but only until 30th June.

I've gone for "blues" on my first card today, teaming Island Indigo and Pool Party (two of Stampin' Up!'s gorgeous In Colors that we have in our range for another year) with my good-old-favourite Crumb Cake.

You have probably noticed that I love to add mini bows, made with baker's twine, to my cards. Today I have a little variation on that theme, adding a little bow to the top of a circle that has baker's twine as a frame. I love this subtle accent - take a look:

It's now time to hop on over to Alisha Watson's blog, to see what fabulous ideas Alisha has come up with; I know she'll inspire you.

There are six of us taking part in the blog hop today. Here's a full list, in case you lose your way, or need to come back later to visit us all! Please leave some comment love, so we know you've been :)

Friday, June 22, 2012

This week at Just Add Ink, Mae has come up with another great sketch to challenge us! Here it is (sorry about the blurriness - not quite sure what happened there):

I opted to make a little (10.5cm) square card, using Peach Parfait as a dominant colour. I had a little office clip in orange, that was perfect for my colour scheme. My Stampin' Up! Color Coach suggested I team Baja Breeze and Riding Hood Red with Peach Parfait.

In spite of a near-disaster of the "white gel pen" kind, I managed to complete my card. (I'm sure most papercrafters have had many headaches with white gel pens ... just when I found one that has been reliable, it threatened to run out of ink as I was trying to create my faux stitching. Crisis was averted, thankfully, but another one is going on my SU! order today!)

The Baja Breeze pocket is raised up using Stampin' Dimensionals, so the little insert can be pulled out:

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I have been out of my creative groove for a few weeks, since Stampin' Up! Convention, and have really missed playing along with my favourite weekly challenges. Tonight I've had a chance to play in my craft room, and it feels great!

Friday, June 15, 2012

This week's challenge at Just Add Ink is to CASE one of the gorgeous creations of Delys Cram, one of the fearless leaders of our Design Team. Scrolling through Delys' blog brought up loads of cards I could happily have CASEd, but I ended up settling on this one. I have barely used my Posy Punch stamp set - it was high time to get it inky!

I chose the colour combination of Poppy Parade, Tangerine Tango, Daffodil Delight and Crumb Cake, to provide a completely different look to Delys' card. This was intentional, because when I CASE someone's work, I am pretty literal in my interpretation, so I had to do something a little different!

Here's my version (with, I might add, not a single sponged edge in sight!):

Friday, June 8, 2012

Hello, friends! After a week's absence, I'm back with a card (that I was despairing wouldn't get made ... gee, Stampin' Up! Convention saps a girl's energy!). Convention was a blast. I got to spend time with a number of special friends, including several of my fellow Just Add Ink Design Team members; we had so much fun together.

Patrice has set this week's challenge at Just Add Ink, to add pearls to your papercraft project.

I have used one of the stamps from Reason to Smile, which is a new stamp set available exclusively in June. It's a two-step floral stamp set, which I can see I'll have a lot of fun with. The 'solid' flower stamp has very fine surface detail that yields a really subtle result. I stamped this in Blushing Bride ink on Whisper White card, before over-stamping the outline flower in Basic Gray.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

I have scheduled this blog post to publish while I'm away this weekend, attending Stampin' Up! South Pacific's annual Convention. (Just quietly ..... WOOHOO!!!) This year Convention is being held in Canberra, and there are more than 450 Stampin' Up! demonstrators from around Australia and New Zealand attending.

There are many highlights of Convention, several of which I'll share with you in coming days, with photos. One of the great parts is 'swapping' with others - we make a card front, or 3-D papercraft item, using Stampin' Up! products, and the idea is to make multiples. This allows us to swap our creations with others, who in return share their ideas. I detest making multiples of anything; the mass-production process really detracts from the enjoyment of creating. However, I broke it down into manageable 'bites' this year, making three different designs. This allowed me to get to 100 swaps without having a breakdown! I have gone with tags, rather than cards, this year, and thought I'd share them with you.

My first tag is a very simple one, in soft colours, letting the beautiful Attic Boutique Designer Series Paper do all the 'talking'. The tag was finished with a coating of Champagne Mist shimmer spray, but unfortunately the sparkle doesn't show in the photo.